Save Zilker

09/29/2023

🐶Pup parent reminder ⚠️ With the Great Lawn closed for ACL you may be looking for nearby parks to play. If you go to Auditorium Shores, Red Bud, or elsewhere by the lake, please remember toxic algae is still present in Town Lake and your pup should not enter or drink the water.

Stay safe y’all 🎾

09/11/2023

Now that the we’re out of the 100°s, ACL will close the Great Lawn on 9/25, which we can expect to remain closed through the rest of the year 🫠.

Certain parking lots in Zilker will begin closing 9/20.

Trail of Lights will begin after ACL, keeping many of the closures in place.

According to the City, Zilker is only allowed to be closed for 24 days. They don’t count staging days; so they count ACL as closing the park to the public for 6 days.

Interestingly, even by their math, the park is closed for 29 out of the 24 allowed days 🧐.

How do you feel about this?

08/07/2023

WE WON! There's still work to do, but for today - the Zilker Vision Plan will not move forward.

Make stunning videos with a single click. Cut, trim, crop, add subtitles and more. Online, no account needed. Try it now, free. VEED

07/20/2023

Talk about misinformation. The consultants behind the Zilker Vision plan only identified 70 protected trees in the park. 🌳 A partial survey, conducted by a certified arborist, identified well over 300 protected trees in less than half the park.

🌊Zilker Park and Barton Springs is not a typical park. It is an extremely rare and sensitive ecological zone supporting the fragile limestone aquifer beneath the surface.

Any plans should be considered firstly through the lens of environmental science, ecology, and geology. The consultants (Design Workshop) defers any of these studies for a later time.

⁉️Why would we trust the recommendations of a plan that can’t even take inventory of the above-ground resources within the park?

⁉️Did the city hire Design Workshop because they are the most qualified experts in the country to dictate the fragile park’s future? Or is it because Claire Hempel (lead) is also the Vice-Chair of the City Planning Commission and board member of The Trail Conservancy?

🗓️ August 31, City Council will vote on the Zilker Vision Plan.

📣 Email City Council how you hope they will vote, as they are elected to represent you.

07/07/2023

Are you a Great Lawn person or Springs person?

The Great Lawn is the center of rec sports, dog life, and a backyard we can all enjoy.

The Springs is a magical 68° oasis in the center our city.

Which do you prefer?

07/07/2023

⚠️City Council votes on your behalf on the Zilker Vision Plan on 8/31 at City Hall.

💪Join us for a day of democracy as Austinites address City Council before they vote.

📣Anyone who wants to speak is welcome. We anticipate public speaking to begin at 2. This will be a long day. Feel free to come and go.

Bring signs, snacks, and your love for Zilker ❤️

07/01/2023

It’s our turn.

33 years ago over 1,000 Austinites showed up to City Hall to oppose the “Barton Creek PUD”. Public comment went on through the night, and by morning City Council unanimously denied the PUD development. From this citizen-led movement, was born.

🆘 On August 31st, City Council will vote on the Zilker Vision Plan, a $200M+ development plan for Zilker park and Barton Springs.

📣This is our turn to save Zilker. Follow us to stay up to date on times and agendas. Share with everyone you know. It’s going to take all of us 💪

06/26/2023

Where does Austin desperately need to invest in parks? 📍East Austin.

Trust for Public Land mapped park investment needs across Austin to address park access, climate, equity, and health. With darker purple indicating higher need, you can see how dark purple East Austin is compared to West.

Low income Austinites have access to 55% less park space than higher income residents.

The Zilker Vision Plan is a $200M development plan for a park people are largely already happy with, in an area with disproportionately high access to parks.

We do not need $200M in parking garages and amphitheaters on Zilker. We need $200M in investments into neighborhood parks throughout Austin so everyone can have daily access to parks, nature and outdoor recreation.

🆘 You will not get to vote on the Zilker Vision Plan. You must email your elected city council representative and tell them how you’d like them to vote.

📣 Link to email City Council in bio!

06/22/2023

🧐 Curious how big the 5,000 seat amphitheater proposed to go on the Great Lawn is?

Just head 3 miles over to the 5,000 seat Moody Amphitheater that is operated by Live Nation at Waterloo Park ➡️

Want something closer? Head 1 mile over to the Long Center’s Concert Park ➡️

Do you want an amphitheater on the Great Lawn?

💔 We already lose the lawn for 4 of its most usable months due to events.

📣 Email City Council. This is not going to a public vote, City Council will vote on your behalf. Link in bio!

06/20/2023

⁉️If Parks & Rec can’t maintain Zilker now, how will they maintain it after adding an amphitheater, concessions, a welcome center, and 3 parking garages?

💰$200M is just the (under)estimate to 🏗️build all this stuff on the park. Maintaining these items adds lifelong daily costs and personnel to Zilker.

Not once does the Vision Plan address issues like trash.

If they can’t handle keeping the park clean now, how can we trust them to maintain it after the implementation of the Zilker Vision Plan?

🚫We don’t need an amphitheater or parking garages to Save Zilker.

✅We need groundskeepers, trash cans, active maintenance, and park personnel on site.

The current Zilker maintenance budget is $1.7M. 🧐Perhaps we figure out how to take care of what we do have before adding $200M more things we can’t maintain.

📣 🆘 Email city council your concerns on the ZVP as the public will not get a vote. Link in bio.

06/15/2023

🌊We must protect Barton Springs. In 2022 Las Moras Springs and Jacob’s Well ran dry 🕳️. Our aquifer is under increasing stress from a boom in population, water demands, and ongoing development.

Zilker is fragile and essential for the health of Barton Springs. Frankly, no one fully understands the consequences of ongoing human influence on and in the aquifer, which is why we feel it isn’t even worth the risks the Vision Plan proposes.

More than 70% of the plan is for intensive and unnecessary construction, excavation, and concrete.

❌Parking garages, an amphitheater on the Great Law , a welcome center, sidewalks, terraces, and 3 new bridges over our waterway.

We’d rather just have our Springs.

Neither the Vision Plan or City Council can guarantee there won’t be irreparable consequences to these development plans, it shouldn’t even be on the table.

📣 Email City Council to vote against the Zilker Vision Plan. Link in bio.